Retirement Lifestyle: New Computer Requirements

I have always had an Mac computer...since the beginning of Steve Job's computer life we have owned a Mac or Apple or iMac or an iPad or an iPhone, an iWatch, etc. (Is there more?) I don't think it is a religion but it might be. I do feel compelled to scoff at PC users as they do me. But that is not a religion is it?

Anyway, times they are a-changing for me. I am not that fired up about change most of the time and it is not necessarily welcome. So that "changing" did not happen overnight. There was a big bang that started it all. The chain of events went like this:

My computer (the big iMac) was smashed on the way home of Arizona and now has a big ouchy on it's upper right hand corner. In this particular case, the Gorilla glass just couldn't take the punch it received. In hide-site, I think that the security people at the airport opened my bag, unpacked my bag and then repacked my bag and did not secure the computer the way it was secured when we packed it. There was a note inside telling me they had taken a look but I think they did more than that. The suitcases shifted in the back of the van so when we arrived home and my grandson opened the back hatch door, the suitcase fell out. Thankfully it did not hit and kill the grandson. It did hit the concrete on it's corner. The suitcase was just fine but the computer was not. The suitcase cost less than $100 but the computer was well over $1000.


Yes, I called everyone imaginable but no one could/would help. Sooooo. I was in the market for a new computer. That was on April 25.

I have been thinking about this since. Because the really broken Mac still works fine, I had the luxury of time. But, my husband and I both knew that the Mac could not take another trip on the airplane. If I was going to write for the six months we spend in the desert in the winter, I was going to need something to write on.

Yesterday, we went to the local mall and we visited the Apple Store. It wasn't until I stood in front of the computers that I realized I did NOT want another computer. I wanted more.  I wanted the luxury and portability of an iPad and its touch screen plus the functions of my computer.

Bottom line, we bought a 12 inch iPad Pro and a keyboard that attaches. It is absolutely beautiful and will do just what I want it to do. When I opened the online Blogger App it was exactly the same as my computer. I felt right at home.

I did struggle a little bit setting it up. I forgot the passcode, had to learn to restore the device, forgot to write down the passcode a second time but I finally landed on my feet. We are set to go. So here I am writing on an iPad and not noticing any difference. Isn’t that wonderful?

Have your needs changed at all? Are you still using the same computer as always? How old is it? Is it a PC or a Mac? Keep me posted.

Have a beautiful day!

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Homophones driving me crazy!

Image via Wikipedia

Graph just to impress you!  

Now I am not talking about obscenities here...I am talking about words that Chrome and Firefox spell check can't figure out...the ones that leave me looking very foolish.  See I don't have an editor and in the world of blogging, posts need to be put up frequently or you lose (or is that loose) interest.   I have a list of those words that are in fact misspelled when used in one context and perfectly alright in another.  When they are pronounced they sound the same.   In the English teacher's world those words are called homophones and there is actually a website you can look at to get a better picture of how many there are.  Evidently the computer does not know one homophone from the other.  Here are a few of my problem words:

Shouldn't that be plums? (see, I'm not the only one!)

• plumb
• plum
• lose
• loose
• dessert
• desert
• close
• clothes
• choose
• chose
• choice
• accept
• except
• four
• for
• in
• inn
• to
• too
• yah
• yeah
• yea
• yay
• ya
• all ready
• already
• belligerence
• belligerents
• there
• their

OK, you get the drift.  It seems that my finger do the walking but my brain is about seven steps ahead and my eyes are seeing what I will be writing rather that what is actually on the page.  When I do my spell check, the checkerizer just takes one look and thinks it is such a mess it cannot be fixed...or at least that is what I think it does.  I might add I am a little confused by proper nouns, homonyms and prepositional phrases.  Then there is punctuation..is there any hope?  Sigh!

What are the words that you misspell the most often?  Just a little brain teaser for this Friday!

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Related articles

• 100 Most Misspelled Words (Your Dictionary)
• What is the homophone to the word sweat (wiki.answers.com)
• Chrome's Spell Checker Gets Smarter (mt-soft.com.ar)
• Spell checking for dummies (onetechtip.com)
• What is a homonym for real (wiki.answers.com)

How I shut my computer down...humor!

Image by marcopako  via FlickrMy computer has decided that it does not like to be shut down.  It lets me close all the applications and very nicely allows me to look at the choices available for putting the baby to bed.  It will even tell me that this or that is not closed properly like all good little Apple computer will.  Then I can click the shut down icon and it will shut down, the screen goes blank and everything will be very quiet for a few second.

That is when I begin to sneak away from my desk.  I roll the desk chair back quietly and turn to the left so I won't bump the desk or touch the track pad.  Just as I am rising from my chair it will suddenly spring back to life.  I will hear a BONG and the computer will reopen as though it has been asleep for the required 10 hours.  Like a wakeful two year old I swear it would get up and follow me out of the room if it could.

On a few occasions I have actually unplugged the naughty machine, forcing it to be quiet for the required length of time.  I have come to believe that this computer may be a living force of nature that cannot be told what it will or will not do.  It is saying "yes I do know how to do the things you ask but I will never tell you how to make me do it."  Thank heavens I know where the plug is located...Apple put it in a very convenient location for a good reason I think.  Sigh!

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Note: Never buy real estate in the Willamette Valley, Oregon on a sunny day, buy a computer before visiting the Apple store and get old!

HEADLINES IN OREGONIAN

 Don't tell me newspaper people don't have a sense of humor.  The last week the Oregonian here in the Portland, Or. metro area ran this as a headline:

Dear Rain,

We give.

Sincerely,

Portland 

     I have a very good piece of advice for you...IF YOU ARE FROM OUT OF TOWN, NEVER, NEVER BUY A PIECE OF REAL ESTATE IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY ON A SUNNY DAY!  We have been home from Arizona for 5 week now.  It was nice for two weekends in a row.  But it rained steady the rest of the time.  Now it has rained so much my daughter's cherry tree tipped over in her back yard...very close to the house.  She does not live on a hill or in a depression.  It has just rained so much that any tree even near to being tippy will fall over.  They fall on the freeways, people's houses and in the woods. There is a price to be paid for our beautiful countryside.  We know that it rains a lot but, if you are from say Arizona, you might not.  Just thought you would want to know.

A VISIT TO THE MALL
As you may or may not know, I am a Apple computer user and have been since the beginning, of the Apple computer I mean!  We currently have 3 of them in our house, an iphone and several we have given to grandchildren.  I have a hard time figuring out why anyone would go through the pain of using a PC.  But then that is just me.  When google announced last week that it would be going away from the Microsolf operating system I could only think what took you so long?  

The fun begins very young!

Grandmother getting ipad help!

     That bring me to our visit to the Apple Store in Washington Square in Beaverton, Oregon.  This is a stop we make anytime we are in the area.  I just want to see what is going on.  The new ipad is causing quite a stir in the neighborhood...that is just a given.  But what interested me more than anything was the cross section of people standing at the counter just giving it a whirl.  Both young and old are finding this new computer toy interesting.  One click to what I need always works for me!


THOUGHTS ON AGING
   My husband has not been well since we returned home.  A bout with a nasty bug has left him sapped and complication have been detected.  We have gone to a specialist, had a proceedure done at Portland Providence Hospital and now we are waiting.  This, I suppose is the lot of retired people.  Illness happens.  Sigh!
   We ventured out today for the first time since his little visit to the hospital for breakfast.  I love this part of our life.  A man and his wife sat near us and I noticed a walker to the side and wondered about their age.  Is that the way I am suppose to look? I cannot tell if people are 90 or 65 anymore.  I cannot even visualize what a woman of 68 (my age) is suppose to look like.
    Much to my delight the man stopped by our table and struck up a conversation.   So we were treated to his life's story and yes, we loved every minute of it.  The lovely lady had been his wife for 65 years.  They had married at 17 and called Christmas Valley their home. We will not be moving there anytime soon...well never!  But he loved it.  Isolated in the south east corner of our state, locked in the basin that allows no water to escape to any ocean and covered with sagebrush and cheat grass, this place takes a special person to find it's beauty.  I could tell he was a very special man.   His parting words were You've got to have fun!  All I could think was, Amen.  Even when you are sick you still need to find the fun in the day.  We are trying!

    I had been collecting things for you all week.  Bits and pieces of my life to share with a kindred spirit...that would be you in case you were wondering.   They were in a bag somewhere inside a drawer deep in the recess of my mind...and I thought I had lost it.  It was really kind of sad in a lot of ways. Thankfully I found the bag in a locked drawer behind the name of my high school principal!
   
     Have a wonderful week.  I hope you find something that interested you here.

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